Story: A meteor touches down near a small town. Requisite stock character Old Man Hermit goes looking for it, and damn if it doesn’t stick to him. Stick to him good. A couple of teens take him to the hospital, where it continues to stick to him…and grow. Sure hope it doesn’t get much bigger.

Scares: Straight-up drive-in funtime shocks.

Splat factor: Bodies dissolve. Less splat, more ooze.

Closing scene “shocker”?: It’s a horror film from the late 80s. Of course it does.

Remake, Sequel or OG (Original Ghoul)?: Remake of the original 1958 drive-in and double feature classic.

Trick or Treat?: If you saw the original but wished for more gore and cleavage? Well have I got a film for you! 30 years later, and we’ve got

This film is the one that gave Shawnee Smith her start to scream queen status, and she digs into the role of sci-fi Final Girl with gusto. Matt Kevin Dillon plays the Steve McQueen teen rebel, though as with McQueen, he doesn’t look like he’s in high school either. But he does have the Rebel Leather Jacket, so that’s cool baby. Real cool. Keep an eye out for old-school actors Candy Clark, Jeffrey DeMunn, and Joe Seneca; well, for as long as their onscreen at least. I’ve said too much…

A lot of shout outs to the original script. But it’s definitely got its own 90s horror spin, complete with horrifying FX. Throw in the white suited government scientist types from E. T. Because it’s the 80s y’all, and sinister gub-ment conspiracies were all the rage. Everything old is new again, I guess?

The actual Blob here is grittier, more tentacle-y. Think John Carpenter’s The Thing, rather than Slime from the Toys R Us. I dig the mix of early CGI and on-screen FX, it works really well here. Hey, it’s a movie about a huge glob of ooze. Better dust off the special effects, and make it snappy!

Things go absolutely gonzo at the finish, with tanks, flamethrowers, and Blobby running amok in the sewer system. It’s glorious. But the final scene feels out of place, as if it was tacked on just in case the film did well. Apparently there was going to be a sequel. But nup. Prolly for the best. If a sequel had been as iffy as that final scene? UGH. Stick with the rest of the film though, and you’ll have a good, pink-g00ey, time.